Users Guide to Off-Grid Energy Solutions

hand pump

hand pump: a pump driven by human force, generally by hand, or by foot, or sometimes, by the weight of the human body. Hand pumps have been in operation for centuries. Indeed, water levers including the classical Hellenic or Archimedes Screw and the balance lever (shadiya in Arabic, levered pole on mounting with water pouch or bag on one end, and human on the other) have been in use for thousands of years. Animal and human driven water wheels (sagiya in Arabic) have been in operation along the Nile and other water courses in the Middle East and North Africa for thousands of years. There has been a revolution in hand pumps over the past thirty years as NGOs, governments and development agencies have striven to make safe drinking water available to all. This is one of the United Nations Childrens Funds' goals, supported by a number of agencies (click here to visit Lifewater International and Lifewater Canada, two good sites to explore for further information, contacts, diagrams and advice).

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